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A J3RIEF CHliONK'LE
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%\\t f Il^ird of S^tt €^^oix,
TA DO us AC,
AT THE MOUTH OF THK RIVER SAGUENAY,
ON THE
RIVER ST, LAWRENCE,
Embodied in an Appeal to Canadians of
all Denominations for
their Generous Snp]K)rt in aid of its
Enlargement and Decoration,
/
(Frofn The Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal^
:
MONTREAL: HENRY ROSE, PRINTER, 626 CRAIG STREET.
1870.
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FAC SIMILE OF RECORD OF FOUNDATION OF THE CHAPEL AT TADOUSAC.
INTRODUCTORY.
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JHE object of this appeal i- to endeavour to cnli.^t the sympathy and support of all Canadians on behalf of Oxie of the most .interesting ecclesiasti- cal edifices in the Dominion— the Chapel of Ste. Croix at Tadousac ; a structure which, in addition to the claims it presents as one of the earliest places of Christian worship on the St. Lawrence, derives a deep interest from its connection not only with the early Christian missionaries but with the early commerce and civilization of Canada.
If the piety of our forefathers in England, Scotland, Ire- land, and France, during the dark ages, prompted them tc. perform such glorious works as the building and endowing noble cathedrals to the praise and glory of God, not grudg"^ ing to give of all they had, not thinking that anything could. by any possibility, be too costly for the service that they made, what should be expected from those who rejoice in the brightness of a better and more enlightened age ?
Let us reverence the spirit ofself-sacrificeof the'iilark age.-: (as they are contumeliously termed,) and see with what*" a noble ardour the men of those days devoted a//,—momy, time, thought, hope, life itself.— to raising for God and man shrines as worthy of God as human hands could raise, ar.d fit and able to lift man's thoughts and Iiopes beyond Earth, and lead them on heavenward. The>' did not sit down bl .sum up the exact co t of glorifying Gcd ; they did not cal- culate exactly how many the holy roof would cover ; they
.mlLMLI
knew witli their hearts, if their tonguei never uttered, the
truth, that
" W\gh Heaven disc^ains the love Of nicely calculated less and more."
If the night of those dark ages is now .^pent, and the morn- ing-star of Civilization has extended its light on Canada, surely it will be an act of piety to erect a monument in me- morial of those men by whom the glad tidings of Christian- ity and the blessings of Literature, Science, and Commerce, were first brought to the shores of the St. Lawrence. If so, let me appeal with confidence to the reader of the following Chronicle to give his offering with cheerfulness towards the enlargement and decoration of the Chapel of Ste. Croix. In order to properly carry out the work it will, according to estimates, cost about i 500 dollars, which the poor residents at Tadousac cannot raise. The object in view is not super- ficial decoration, but substantial restoration and enlarge- ment,— not the idle display of excessive ornament, which would be incongruous, but the extension of church accomo- dation to all who desire to profit by the ordinances and mm- istrations of the sanctuary. The money collected will be spent wisely and well.
In conclusion, the writer trusts that the same spirit will be put in the hearts of all who read this appeal that was put into the hearts of Josiah, Hezekiah, and Ezra, to repair the breaches of the Temple, so that nothing may be wanting to complete the proposed work. So mote it be.
T. D. K.
-^^I^te^
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TADOUSAC AND TH1£ CHAPEL OF STE. CROIX.
Hl*> object of this paper is not to dwell on the gran- deur and even sublimity of the wonderful Sag- uenay, which some travellers think is fit to rank with Styx and Acheron, and that Lethe must have been a purling brook compared with its wild, gloomy and savage character. The awful majesty of its mountainous and rocky shores, and its dark-grey cliffs of sienitic granite, in the crevices of which are rooted sombre-green firs from the pitch black water line to their lofty summits, fringing the blue sky, has been the theme of poets, and the admira- tion of all who are impressed with the austere beauties of na- ture, in her most wild and rugged aspect. To all lovers of the sublime it exercises a fascination which is irresistible. The contrast in its scenery and that of Lakes George, Champlain and Memphremagog, or the River Hudson from West Point to the Palisades, or the River St. Lawrence, through the Thousand Isles, is as great as that between L Allegro and // Peuscyoso.
li
In tlic one lundscapc \vc ni;iy imagine Iun)Iir()sytic with her
<^ui|)s, and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and l)ecks, and wreatlitvl smiles;
and in the other Melancholy in iier
Sal)It; stole of cypress lawn. All in a robe of darkest f^rain, — Of C'erl)crus and blackest inidnif^l.t horn In Styj^ian cave forlorn.
After the voyaj^eur has traversed the river in either of the well appointed and ;ibly connnanded steamers, the Union, or the Sagiicmv, or the St. Lawrence, and entered into communion with savage, unconquered nature, it would be well if he remained for even a week and erijoyed the quiet- ude of Tadou.'.ac, which, accordin*^ to Mr. J. C. Tache, "is placed like a nest in the midst of the <^Tanite rocks that sur- round the mouth of the Sa^uenay. It i-; a delicious place."
It cannot be called a town, or a villaf^e, or a hamlet ; it is not beautiful, yet there is to the writer an enchantment in the place ; it breathes a charm of ancient days, its very name takes us back to the cradle of the history of Canada, and to the beginning of its commerce with Europe, and more, to the very dawn of the Christian Reli<;ion and missionary enter- prise on this continent. Jacques Cartier landed here in the beginning of Septerrber, 1535, about forty years after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, and the discovery of Newfoundland by John Cabot. In the mirror of the past we can see the intrepid mariner and his hard)' companions planting the cross on the site of the little chapel of Ste. roix de Tadousac, of which more anon. For its res- toration, enlargement and decoration I shall presently plead.
Tadousac, in the Montagnais dialect, means mounds, Ala- melons. Some derive it from the Montagnais expression, ShashiikOy which signifies The Place of Lobsters ; others say the meaning of the word Tadousac is the The Month of a
•Sad-; to some Indian Tribes it was Ivnown uiuicr the name of Sadilcgc.
At TacJousac Champlain founci ships in 1610. and remarks that they had arrived as early as the 19th May; in 1622 it became a regular tradin^r post, and in 1648 the Tadousac traffic yielded more than 40,000 livrcs in clear profit, and the commercial transactions, in amount , exceeded 250,000 Itvrcs; the weight of the furs being as much as 24,400 lbs.
1 he harbour of Tadousac is on the eastern side of the en- trance to the Saguenay. It is a semicircular bay, with a sandy beach at its head, and rather more than half a mile wide and a third of a mile deep, and is so well sheltered in every direction that no sea of any consequence rises to pre- vent even a boat from entering the liarbour. This bay or harbour played an important part in our early history as a stopping place for French and Jiasque vessels engaged in the fisheri^s, and we learn from Mr. J. M. LeMoinc's Chronicles of the St. Laivrence that Chauvin had founded a fishing port at Tadousac as early as 1599, but whether the ships or "ir gosies with portly sail," which first brought to our shores Cartier, de Roberval, Champlain, and Kertk, made u^e of the bay, or the small picturesque, and we may say unique cove oiVAiisc a /' Eau, the Chronicles do not tell. It is very probable the bay was used as the harbour, because we learn by Mere de I'Incarnation that the Tadousac Fort was burnt with the dwelling quarters and church in 1665. The fort must have been in existence prior to 1628, for in that year the English Admiral, William Kertk, took possession of IS, and subsequently it was restored to the French in 16^ -> In 1636 Father Paul le Jeune, a Jesuit missionary, came to Tadousac to convert the Indians ; in 1642 Father Jean De quen entered upon the mission with great courage, and was received with welcome and demonstrations of joy by the In dians, u'ho erected a cabane, part of which ^^-as dedicated to
s
the worship of God and served as a chapel. In 1644 lea- ther Jacques Buteiix reconstructed the cabane partly with bricks in^ported from France, and herein the Indians used to assemble for religious instruction. IMadame la Peltrie, ac- companied by two nuns from the Ursuline Order, came this year to Tadousac and became godn. other to the Indians, many of whom were baptized and initiated into the Christian Church, and, doubtless, they embraced their new religion with zeal, for in 1646 they erected a grand cross with great joy, accompanied by u./ai dc joic from the arquebusades be- longing to the fort. On the foundation of Religion, as on a rock, is ev^er built the permanent advancement of a country, its reputation and its happiness. And Canada may well thank those noble hearts, who, as pioneers in the wilderness, and struggling with all its difficulties and dangers, maintain- ed with courage and devotion the faith and habits of their fathers. vVe cannot measure the controlling influence of the Religion then instilled into the minds of the Indians in the Province of Quebec, or the beneficial effects it has had up- on the civilization of their descendants. A writer in 1855 says : " The traveller through the backwoods of Canada of- ten recognizes the clergyman, not by the habilliments com- mon to his calling, but by the weather beaten and mud be- spattered look of one who travels far over the rough ways of the earth, to visit and to bring consolation to the poor and lonely." The same writer records having seen in Western Canada "the clergyman dripping with rain and bespattered with mud, having travelled thirty miles, and two more ser- vices to perform that day in the neighbouring district, and then having to retrace his way homewards another thirty miles." If such hardihood and devotion is worthy of praise, what must we say of the hardihood and devotion of those old Jesuit Fathers who were exposed in the winter at Tadousac to a degree of cold and its effects, which Milton, in his de-
scHption of Satan and his compeer/, after adverting to Styy, thus describes : —
Beyond this flood a fro/.cn continent Lies dark, find wild, beat with perpetual storms Of whirlwind and dire had, which on linn land Thaws ncjt, but gathers heap, and. ruin seems Of ancient p. le : all else deep snow and ice.
What must we think of them? Ought not the pre.:: en t memorial of their work, the chapel of Ste. Croix de 'J'adou- sac, to be rehabilitated and embellihhed? — Ought it not to be held as sacred as a shrine ? What suffering and misery, what sad and painful episodes there must have been in the h'ves of those devoted missionaries, the pioneers of the civiliza- tion and evangelization of the once benighted regions of tie Saguenay ! The writer of this appeal, for such it will be, is an Anglican, one who has for many years enjoyed the boating and yachting in the Lower St. Lawrence, and the fi. hing in the Saguenay, the Bergeron and the E-rquemain. After having had a rough passage hi one of the decked fishing boats be- longing to the finiily Hovington, Vvhose name is as familiar as household words to all frequenters of the Tadousac Hotel, he has fell a relief to go into the chapel of Ste. Croix and oti'er up his Hymn of Thank:- "•iviiiir.
But to return to the history of the chapel :— In 1647 the Jesuits brought a bell for the chapel, said to be the gift of Louis XIV of France ; it was not injured during the fire (;f 1665. and is now hanging in the belfry of the present little church or chapel of Ste. Croix, The Jesuit Fathers held the mission until the year 1782. Father J. B. de la Brosse was the last, and it was he who built the confessional which is now to be seen In the iacristv, which is a very und'enincd portion of the chapel, and is as devoid cf architectural cmbeilishment as one of the ordinary cabanes cf the district.
In 1747, during the bishopric of Monscigneur Dubrit 1 do
10
Pontbriant, of Quebec, Father Coquart, Jesuit, blessed the t]^round on which the present chapel is built, and drove the first wedge. Monsr. Hocquart, Intendant of New France, granted all the planks, beams, shingles and nails necesary for the building. On the i6th of May, 1747, the foundation was laid, and it is recorded upon a piece of lead about ^ of an inch thick and 6]4 inches square (see fac-simile of the original). From it we learn that in the year 1747, the i6th of May, M. Cugent was farmer of the Eitablishmcnt ; F. Dore, Clerk or Agent ; Michael Lavoye, builder, and Father P. Coquart, Jesuit, being in charge of the Mission, laid the foundation of the edifice. In 1749 Father Coquart received 260 livres (francs) for the chapel, which was covered over (roofed in) that year. On the feast of St John the Baptist, 1750, the chapel was completed and valued at 3,000 livres ($600) by Mr. Guillerim, one of the Council of Quebec and King's Commissioner.
The interior of the chapel is very rude, ill garnished, and altogether dilapidated ; it evidences a sign of poverty amongst the inhabitants, which poverty is alas too true, and although the visitor does not see the goblin cheek, the wretched eye, nor hear the long lamentable groan or whining of distress, yet the poverty is observable in the cabanes of the " natives," who depend chiefly for their subsistence upon the visitors who frequent Tadousac in the summer months.
The chapel and the hotel occupy the front edge of a pla- teau on the summit of an escarped height facing the bay or harbour, which has a fine sandy beach. This beach is a safe play-ground for children, and, in calm weather, is free from surf and convenient for boating and bathing. It is also a safe resting place in a tempest for the sail boats of the fisher- men, whose cabanes skirt the shores of the bay, and are within the sound of the chapel bell, which is very sonorous.
The chapel itself is very small and not large enough to ac
II
commodate the people committed to the charge of the priest. Pcrc Felix Gendron ; its dimensions being only 30 feet long by 25 feet wide, with a rudely constructed gallery in the west. In the so-called sanctuary there is a "gilded tabernacle,' the gift of a Mrs. Conolly, wife of one of the " burgesses" of the Hudson's Bay Company. There is neither altar-piece nor altar-screen. The altar itself is poor in design, and de- void of apparel save some common wall paper of a floriated pattern, which material serves in the plain homely rectangu- lar-shaped windows instead of mullions, tracery, and stained glass, with effigies of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, the Apostles, and Evangelists. Within the altar rails are two oil paintings, date the i8th century; they are meritoriou ; pictures, and are, deservedly, objects of great attraction. The one on the right is called "The Guardian Angel." The prin- cipal figure is an angel reaching forth his helpful hand and conducting a child in the right way ; it is emblematic of the text in Psalm xvii. 5, — " Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not" The other, on the left, is the " Presentation of Mary in the Temple," and is signed Bau- vais, 1747. Unfortunately, in consequence of the smallness of the windows, and the absence of light where there should be light, the good qualities of these paintings can neither be appreciated or studied. These paintings want to be not only cleaned and varnished, but to be relined, because the origi- nal canvasses are puckered and »-otten, and partly detached from the stretchers. If not speedily put into the hands of an artist for restoration, these pictures will soon cease to exist, as the paint is, in some places, peeling itself from the canvas. There are also three small paintings, not by any means equal to the others as works of art. One is the effigy of our Lord, another that of the Virgin Mary ; the former dates from the time when the Mission was under the charge of the Jesuits, and the third is one given by Father Duplessis to
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I^ither Jean Bapti.Uc Maurice, S. J., who died in 1746, and was the immediate predecessor of Father Coquart, who laid the foundation of the cliapel, as already recorded. There are still preserved some chandeliers carved by the Jesuits ; beyond these, the '* Louis vjuatorze Bell," and the paintings, there is nothing of special interest in the chapel, but there is, and always ought to be, an archaeological interest in the site where the Cross was first planted at the mouth of the Saguenay, and where the Indians (Montagnais) of the district were baptized and received the sign of the holy cross in token of their new birth, and their admission to the privi- leges of Christianity. I should like to see erected on the site a chapel rivalling in b(\auty any on this continent, nay even the famous La Sain.te Chapelle, Paris, or the Chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster Palace.
Not deeming such a consummation probable or possible, let those who have any veneration for their country's history aid the restoration of the present chapel. Let the descen- dants of those who played so important a part in the stir- ring times of Champlain, Pont-grave, Montmorency, Mai- sonneuve, Laval, De Frontenac, La Salle, Dc Longueuil, Vaudreuil, Beauharnois, Montcalm, and De Salaberry, help to rescue the Chapel of Ste. Croix from its present de- graded condition. The western porch with the steps leading thereto are in a wretched plight, the building itself requires not only renovation, but enlargement and decoration. I'^or this purpose subscription boxes are put up in the chapel and at the Tadousac Hotel, and it is to be hoped that no visitor to this place of rest and recreation will omit to drop his spare silver into them. Assuredly all Christian souls ought to feel, no matter to what denomination they belong, that this cradle, as it were, of the Gospel in Canada ought to bs had in ever- lasting remembrance. I have given as much information as I could possibly collect from the resident priest, who dc-
13
plores not only the condition of his chapel, but the very poor condition of the people committed to his charge. Relative to the history of the Mission — those desirous to obtain more in- formation will find it in the ''Rclatioiis," or in some of the works collected in the library of the Historical Society of Quebec, now presided over by Mr. J. M. LeMoine, who has contribut- ed much to the chronicles of the St. Lawrence. Enough has been written, I hope, to stir up the wills of not only the Ro- man Catholic, but the Protestant churchmen of the Province of Quebec to make the Chapel of Ste. Croix worthy the name it bears. The source of the stream of evanfrelizing and chris- tianizing the Indians of Canada, the Montaignais, Iroquois, Chippeways, Algonquins, &c., must be traced to Tadousac, whence it has flowed to places which the mighty waters of the River St. Lawrence, with its chain of lakes, have not reached. The benefit of having the descendants of those savage and warlike tribes peaceful and industrious is not to be measured by their lacrosse playing. The precepts of the Chri>5tian religion first taught their forefathers by those Jesuit missionaries have d.^^stroyed the turbulence of their passions and softened their manners. If Runnymede, where the " pal- ladium of liberty " and the basis of the P^nglish laws and con- stitution was commenced in the Magna Charta, is considered a hallowed spot by Englishmen, so ought Tadousac to be so considered by Canadians for the introduction of a greater liberty, a charter, now written in a language understandable by the once unlettered and ignorant and implacable Indian. P>nough and enough. The enlargement and restoration of the Chapel Ste. Croix rests with the readers of this ap- peal. I5ut there is another appeal which ought to be an- swered at once.
. Adjoining the chapel is a " graveyard " grown over with thorns and thistles, wild raspberries and rank weeds, which overtop the rude wooden memorials sacred to the ashes of
H
those reposing within its precincts. The cost of clearing it and of the erection of a large cross, symbolic of the faith of all Christians, can be defrayed at the cost of about fifty dol- lars, which the descendants of those buried in "God's Acre " cannot through their poverty do.
Hoping and believing this appeal will not be in vain, I commend the restoration of the chapel, the clearing of the graveyard and the erection of the cross, to all whom it may concern, and simply sign myself
Thomas D. King.
July 30, 1879.
P. S. — Since the above was v/ritten, the author visited Tadousac and superintended the clearing of the grave-yard and the erection of a wooden cross which is visible from the entrance of the Saguenay. The grave-yard has been divided by means of gravel walks into four parterres, and the ground sown with white and red clover. At the intersection of the walks, a Latin Cross, 18 feet high, with trefoil finials, and three steps at its base, was erected on Friday the 7th of Au- gust, and on the Sunday following, in the afternoon, it was blessed by Pere Felix Gendron, in the presence of his con- gregation and many visitors. After the religious ceremony, Pere Th. G. Rouleau delivered a very eloquent and impres- sive oration in the French language upon the symbolism of the Cross.
Upon clearing away the brambles and brushwood which encumbered the graveyard, nothing possessing archaeologi- cal interest was discovered. There were only two little un- assuming head-stones, with brief inscriptions, and one iron cross with open fret work. The other monuments comme- morative of the dead were merely wooden slabs and plain wooden crosses, painted black, the majority without any su-
15
perscrlption, and many of them rotten or dilapidated. All were as rude and simple as the people who inhabit the neighbourhood. These unlettered people, however, have not been guilty of erecting those "expressionless inanities'' and " ambitious incongruities " which adorn our Mount Royal cemeteries, many of them travesties of monumental art, with tablets filled with pompous epitaphs. Death has not been parodied by them, nor its aspects made horrible by the introduction of scythe-bearing skeletons, deaths'-heads and cross-bones, — or by grinning ^.kulLs, sickly angels and cherubim, — or by trumpets, doom-bells, and sand-glasses.
The writer would have erected a copy of one of the orna- mental floriated crosses of the early part of the i6th century, had the means been at his disposal, but as the subscriptions obtained in the alms-boxes at Fennel's Hotel and the chapel of Ste. Croix, during his stay at Tadousac, only amounted to forty-seven dollars, he could do no more. He desires to return his thanks to those who so cheerfully and quickly re- sponded to his appeal, thus enabling him to do the first por- tion of the work.
The second portion, viz. : — The enlargement and decora- tion of the chapel is yet to be done. And, as he thinks that following the almost universal practice of conmiemoratin^^r the dead by means of monuments is a laudable one, it would be fitting to do so in the case of Jacques Cartier, de Koberval, Champlain, Laval, and other early pioneers of our commerce and civilization. Again, he thinks that no more graceful memorial could be erected to their honour than the enlarge- ment and decoration of the chapel of Ste. Croix, and he fervently hopes that Canadians of every creed and nation- ality will unite in jointly and severally contributing a suffi- cient sum to commence the work in the spring of 1880.
T. D. K,